Introducting Pat Costello
Author:
Daisy Downes
At the beginning of September, Pat Costello assumed the reins as Chief Executive of the ICAI. He succeeds Brian Walsh who retired in August, having led the ICAI through a difficult five years marked by a number of high profile public interest cases and substantial reforms to the Institute’s disciplinary processes. With the dust now settled on many of those issues, Pat will be hoping to have a clearer run to tackle the areas closer to his own heart, not least services to ICAI members.
He joins the ICAI at an exciting time with changes eagerly anticipated as the Strategy Review Group prepares to report to Council.
A Galway man, Pat comes from farming stock. Prior to joining the ICAI he has had 11 years as Chief Executive of the Irish Taxation Institute (ITI) where he is widely acknowledged to have been the driving force behind the development of a more commercially focused, member-driven organisation.
He claims he inherited his business acumen from his father - a man with a reputation for innovation, who “took great pride in having the best farm and showing it off to the neighbours”.
Educated at Garbally College in Ballinasloe, he says it was not the echoes of the 1691 Battle of Aughrim reverberating across the ages that drew him, as a young man, towards the Defence Forces. Rather he attributes his decision to join the army to the influence of a cousin who told him about the army cadets in UCG who back in the 1970s were driving around in Ford Capris.
Pat joined the army in 1973 and, having spent a year at military college in the Curragh, went on to take a B.Comm at University College Galway.
During his subsequent 20 year career in the army, he spent most of his time in Dublin although he did enjoy periods of service overseas in the Middle East and in Yugoslavia.
He is clearly proud of the Irish army’s contribution at international level and is enthusiastic about the training the army provides. During his own army career he gained experience in Human Resources and Operational and Strategic Planning, before serving as Aide-de-Camp to two Chiefs of Staff.
The great thing about the army he says is that “it teaches you to plan, to set objectives, and to achieve them. You learn about leadership and you learn about good communications. It is a great business training centre.”
And that was the skill set he brought with him to the Irish Taxation Institute which he joined as Chief Executive in 1993.
A small organisation at that time, ITI faced particular challenges in the professional services market: “For one thing the ITI did not have a strong brand so you had to take a commercial approach to providing services”.
That will be part of his leadership style at ICAI where he plans to focus on delivering relevant products and services to ICAI members.
“We have the experts. We need to attract them to give of their time and to share their expertise - the challenge is to attract that voluntary input. And the biggest challenge, of course, is to go beyond what members expect, to anticipate their future needs and, in response, to deliver timely, cost-effective and efficient products and services”.
Asked whether that means he sees ICAI doing things on its own rather than through partnerships going forward, Pat says he is not against partnerships, but he is definitely in favour of maximising ICAI’s own resources and deriving value from them in the best interests of members. He says: “We also need to be strong on representing members’ professional interests to Government and its agencies”.
He is keen to see the Institute playing a supportive role to members from cradle to grave. “It is important that we value our students as future members and that support should be lifelong”. Equally important in Pat’s view is the role retired members play in society and in their local communities. That work should also be supported.
Although not long in the job, already Pat has ideas on the Institute’s public profile: “Part of the role of the ICAI is of course to have a high profile and the Institute has more scope and indeed the expertise to comment on broad economic matters, and broad business matters.”
He says he is excited to be joining the Institute at a time when change is very much on the agenda. And, although it is still early days for him in his new role, already he has been impressed by the “inclusiveness of the current Strategy Review process”.
The key thing about strategy, as he sees it, and coming from the military background he knows a thing or two about it, is to keep it simple. You decide where you are and where you want to be. After that, “implementing strategy should be understandable and easy to communicate”.
For himself, an early objective will be to get things moving: “Once you know the objective, the important thing is to get going. You can monitor and adjust the direction of your journey as long as you are clear on the ultimate destination.”
He likens it to man’s first journey to the moon. “They had to adjust their direction constantly along the way”.
For Pat, his new role is all about “winning the minds and hearts of Chartered Accountants”.
He is looking forward to working with Council, to giving leadership to staff, to meeting members at events, at conferences, and through the various Institute networks.
He says he is “hugely enthusiastic” about the new job and “brave enough to try something new”. And he is clearly keen to get things moving.
Accountancy Ireland Vol 36 No 5 October 2004.